When we thought about all the functions that would be helpful to have in our son’s bedroom, which can definitely be described as “cozy” when it comes to the size (real talk: this room is small), he needed:

• a bed to sleep in
• clothing storage
• book and toy storage out in the open
• some concealed storage for papers and other toys/games
• added bonus: a hangout-y lounge spot for reading or playing with his sister or a friend who comes over
• he also requested his own desk for drawing/homework/playing with magnets (yes, we have a current magnet obsession going strong right now)

light | striped wall tutorial | closet baskets | toy baskets | brass shelf | piggy banks | quilt

We definitely could have pulled the “your room is really small for a desk, not sure we can do that” card – but we thought it was worth a try thanks to the idea of customizing a built-in desk right next to the bed that could double as a nightstand.

Continue reading A Small Kids Bedroom With Lots Of Functional Storage That’s Built Right In at Young House Love.

We haven’t dropped in on this room since this post from more than a year ago about hanging our giant chandelier (how is that possible?! Where did that year go?!?!). This room in many ways has functioned well from day one for us – so I guess our infrequent check-ins make sense. We knew we wanted this big multi-purpose space to serve a few different functions like cozy movie room, a place to lay on the sofa and read/lounge, office/workspace for us, and an arts & craft desk for the kids that could also store all of their papers & creations while having another spot to store all of our board games and all of our work papers. I know. It’s a tall ask, but this is a big room, and as soon as we moved in we knew just where we wanted the TV (and heck, that’s as good of a place to start as any).

Continue reading Our Family Room: 1.5 Years In at Young House Love.

Anyone who lives in a small-ish space knows that thoughtful storage can upgrade so many aspects of your life at home when it’s done right (and it can be a daily frustration when it’s not done well or at all). No matter how big your rooms are or how many you have, you just want to be able to access things easily & keep them in a smart spot – and downsizing from our 3150 square foot house to this 1400 square foot home last year definitely challenged us to be even more mindful about how we incorporate the most useful storage systems into our home. Suddenly we were living in 6 rooms (down from 14!) and we also no longer have a garage, an attic, a big outdoor shed/workshop, or even a closet in most of the bedrooms (of our 3 bedrooms, only 1 had a closet when we bought this house!).

Continue reading 7 Smart Storage Pieces That We Rely On Every Day at Young House Love.

When we shared pictures of our front porch last fall, we said that our decorating strategy out here was basically “plants and more plants.” It helps visually connect the porch to all of the greenery surrounding our house and – as we’ll show you today – it’s also helping us hide some less-than-pretty parts of this outdoor area. Let’s call them wall warts. Three large rectangular wall warts. But more on that in a second.

white fluted planter | outdoor ceiling fan |wicker storage box | larger white planter | similar egg chair

First let’s travel back in time to what this all looked like last February when we put an offer in on this house (that’s our realtor in the photo below)

As you can see, we’ve already come quite a long way (you can read more about the exterior updates we did in this area here & here).

Continue reading A Simple DIY Outdoor Plant Shelf To Disguise Ugly Utility Boxes at Young House Love.

Last week we shared how we built the DIY outdoor hanging daybed that we installed on our front porch. And as promised, I’m back to share how we hung it since, if you’re like me, hanging things that are meant to support the full weight of a human body (or two!) can make you a little nervous.

It was actually extremely easy to do. So easy that we did it more than once (ha!) so that it resulted in the smoothest and most non-tipsy sway possible (our first hanging attempt made it tip forward and backwards a bit, which wasn’t ideal). Thankfully the second attempt worked like a charm. Plus it meant we could document the entire thing for you, so you can just skip right to doing it the better way on the first try.

Here’s how it looked when you last saw it, after our initial hanging attempt:

We mentioned were going to rehang it in last week’s post, because almost immediately after hanging it with just two ceiling hooks, we realized that suspending it that way made the daybed swing front-to-back a bit more than we hoped, like an actual swing you’d find on a playground.

Continue reading How To Hang An Outdoor Daybed (On Video!) at Young House Love.

Back in October we mentioned our plans to add a hanging daybed to the covered portion of our front porch and our entire family couldn’t be more excited that it’s finally done.

Hanging daybeds like this are super popular in our area, and we’ve always had a soft spot for them. Is there anything better than reading/napping outside on a lazy Saturday afternoon?

One of the Airbnbs that we stayed at in Costa Rica last January had one that pretty much cemented our feeling that they’re just about the perfect outdoor lounge spot. Sherry and our daughter spent hours there, each leaning up against a side arm with their legs extended towards each other, reading and chatting and swaying.

Then, lo and behold, we realized that we had a near-perfect spot for one on the front porch of this house.

Continue reading How To Build An Outdoor Hanging Daybed at Young House Love.

We mentioned in this year’s holiday decorating post that we wanted to get some sort of fireplace mantel built this month and, well, Santa delivered! ::pats self on back::

art | frame for art | rug | ottoman |chairs | crystal fireplace logs | storage cabinets | curtains | rods | large light blue vase

Yes, setting a goal to have a place for hanging our kids’ stockings is a little random, but we were happy to have the motivation to check this project off our list sooner rather than later.

If you recall, our fireplace looked like this when we moved in:

Here’s a wider shot of that area right after we got here, just for kicks. Ah, those packing blankets as curtains are #MEMORIES.

Continue reading How We Built An Easy Modern Fireplace Mantel… Just In Time For Stockings! at Young House Love.

If you’ve followed along for a while you’ve seen our bedroom fireplace get a few updates over on Instagram Stories, but today we’re telling the whole sordid tale of how our update ideas recently veered off-course (and how we ended up at Plan B when Plan A went bust). Last time you saw it on the blog, it looked a little something like this:

similar stools |art | frame for art | similar rug | similar pot | wheeled plant stand

But we should rewind for a second. It was pretty bleak looking when we first started Operation Revive The Fireplace. There was a bunch of dried glue and gunk leftover from some tiles that had once covered the surround (not to mention a rusty screen and general grime). But Sherry had that look in her eye that said “don’t second guess me, this is going to work” and after nearly a decade and a half of marriage I have learned not to question this look.

Continue reading How Our Fireplace Makeover Plan Got Squashed (And How We Pivoted) at Young House Love.